L.M. and U.S. Postal Service, Post Office, Hartford, CT (Board decision, May 25, 2023)

ECAB final decision. The Board dismissed the docket because the employee requested an OWCP oral hearing and had not filed a Board appeal. It did not review an OWCP decision. A party may petition the Board for reconsideration within 30 days of issuance unless this order specifies another period, under 20 C.F.R. § 501.7(a).

Plain-English summary

A postal employee checked the box requesting an oral hearing before OWCP’s Branch of Hearings and Review. The Board’s clerk mistakenly assigned a Board appeal docket to that request. The Board found no indication that the employee intended to appeal to it. It dismissed the improperly docketed appeal.

Decision snapshot

• Authority: 20 C.F.R. § 501.3(a).
• Outcome: Inadvertently docketed Board appeal dismissed.
• Key point: A request for an OWCP oral hearing is not an application for Board review.

Full text (ECAB public release)

United States Department of Labor
Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board

________
)
L.M., Appellant
)
)
and ) Docket No. 22-0678
)
Issued: May 25, 2023
U.S. POSTAL SERVICE, POST OFFICE, )
Hartford, CT, Employer
)
__________ )

Appearances: Case Submitted on the Record
Appellant, pro se,
Office of Solicitor, for the Director

ORDER DISMISSING APPEAL

Before:
PATRICIA H. FITZGERALD, Deputy Chief Judge JANICE B. ASKIN, Judge
JAMES D. McGINLEY, Alternate Judge

On March 14, 2022 the Clerk of the Appellate Boards inadvertently assigned Docket No.
22-0678 to a purported appeal from a decision of the Office of Workers’ Compensation Programs (OWCP).

The Board, having duly considered this matter, notes that section 501.3(a) of the Board’s Rules of Procedure provides that a “person adversely affected by a final decision of the Director [of OWCP], or his or her authorized Representative, may file for review of such decision by the Board.”1 Appellant checked the box on an OWCP “APPEAL REQUEST FORM,” indicating that she was requesting an oral hearing before a representative of OWCP’s Branch of Hearings and Review. Appellant did not state any factual and legal argument in favor of a Board appeal or indicate that she was in fact filing an appeal. 2 Thus, as it was not her intention to file an appeal with this Board from a final decision of OWCP, it was error to docket the appeal. The Board thus finds that neither a “person adversely affected” by a final OWCP decision, nor an “authorized Representative,” has filed an application for review by the Board of a final decision issued by

1
20 C.F.R. § 501.3(a).
2
Id. at § 501.3.
OWCP. As such, there is no valid appeal before the Board and Docket No. 22-0678 must be dismissed. Accordingly,

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED THAT the appeal docketed as No. 22-0678 is dismissed.

Issued: May 25, 2023
Washington, DC

Patricia H. Fitzgerald, Deputy Chief Judge Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board

Janice B. Askin, Judge
Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board

James D. McGinley, Alternate Judge
Employees’ Compensation Appeals Board

2